Comcast has officially purchased the video advertising technology
firm FreeWheel, according to
a post published today on FreeWheel's company blog.

FreeWheel is one of the biggest platforms TV networks and online
content producers use to serve ads inside Web video content, with
clients including Fox, AOL, Viacom and Turner Sports.

It also allows cable providers to offer what is called
"addressable advertising" — ads that target certain subscribers
on an individual or household level the same way they do online.
Presently, Comcast
does not offer addressable advertising for live TV, but
competitors like Cablevision and DirectTV do.

According to Variety, Comcast paid $360 million in cash, with
an additional $15 million in potential payouts available based on
performance targets.

The major takehome here is that the boundaries between what we
think of as television and what we think of as online video are
continuing to disintegrate. FreeWheel's stated purpose as a
company is to "unify television advertising wherever content is
viewed."

It seems that across the industry, major companies are deciding
that the future of video will be a seamless mixture of TV and Web
consumption.

The other headline is Comcast's fearlessness before the Justice
Department and the Federal Trade Commission. Already,
there were antitrust concerns about Comcast's megadeal to
acquire Time Warner Cable, and now the company has purchased a
major ad-serving platform that some of its competitors not only
use but have invested in. Comcast's pay-TV rivals Dish Network
and DirecTV are among the clients listed on
FreeWheel's website, with DirecTV investing
in the company at the beginning of 2013.